Recap: Rockies 11, Cardinals 4
Turning point: What had been a 2-1 pitchers duel was blown wide open in the top of the seventh inning when Jorge De La Rosa and Dexter Fowler earned consecutive bases-loaded walks, Clint Barmes singled and Todd Helton cleared the bases with a double to make it an 8-1 Rockies lead. Ian Stewart added a three-run home run later in the inning.
At the plate: Dexter Fowler was 1-for-3 with his first home run since the fourth game of the season. He drove in a second run with a walk in the seventh inning . . . Clint Barmes was 2-for-5, with an RBI single in the seventh . . . Todd Helton drove in three runs and extended his hitting streak to five games with his double . . . Garrett Atkins went 1-for-4. . . . Brad Hawpe was 1-for-4 and extended his hitting streak to seven games . . . Ian Stewart hit his team-leading ninth home run and drove in four runs . . . Seth Smith was 0-for-3, but scored a run . . . Paul Phillips went 1-for-4. . . Jorge De La Rosa notched his first RBI of the season when he walked with the bases loaded in the seventh inning . . . Carlos Gonzalez grounded out in his first Rockies at-bat after coming into the game in the seventh . . . Albert Pujols hit his 18th home run of the season, a solo shot in sixth inning.
On the mound: Jorge De La Rosa was solid for six innings, but struggled in the seventh. After allowing a leadoff home run to Yadier Molina, De La Rosa could have left the inning without further damage after a pair of groundouts to Garrett Atkins and a Brendan Ryan groundball to Todd Helton. But De La Rosa failed to cover first base on the play. The next batter, Rick Ankiel, doubled and chased De La Rosa from the game after 6 2/3 innings. De La Rosa, who allowed three runs on seven hits and two walks while striking out seven, still notched his first win of the season . . . Josh Fogg allowed a run on a Ryan Ludwick home run in the eighth. The only two runs Fogg has allowed since his return to the Rockies have come on solo home runs . . . Adam Wainwright pitched six innings and allowed three hits and three walks while striking out eight . . . All three batters Dennys Reyes faced in the seventh inning reached base, on a base hit and two walks . . . The Cardinals used four pitchers in the nine-run seventh.
Numbers game: 9 runs in the seventh inning for the Rockies, easily their biggest inning of the season. On five occasions — most recently, May 21 against the Braves — the team scored five runs in an inning.
Good for De La Rosa. Good heavens he is a frustrating pitcher (they all sort of are, no?). I think he has the stuff to be great. He does too. Unfortunately, he has the personality to flame out. The incident with Ankiel was very weird. I personally think Jorge was in the right, but maybe Ankiel knew that he could harm him by trying to get inside that difficult brain.
Carlos Gonzalez was apparently supposed to start in LF but was a late scratch when his plane was late (or something like that). He entered the game in CF after the Rockies broke it open. In his AB, he swung at the first pitch; on gameday it looked like it was on the outside corner.
Ankiel’s thing was weird. As far as Goodman and Huson could tell, he was mad that DLR was throwing him curve balls in a blowout. I’ve heard of not stealing bases or swinging hard on 3-0 pitches when ahead, but not that…
De La Rosa was very good for those first six innings. The final line doesn’t look that bad, but he was really iffy in the seventh inning. In any case, two key things happened tonight that should give him a confidence boost: the Rockies scored for him and he won.
Good for DLR and the Rox to get another win. I still think DLR is too much of a head case to harness his amazing talents on a consistent basis. But perhaps he just needs to get a nickname, you know like Nuke after the Bull Durham character. Might get him to just get outside of his own head and take on a different personality out there on the mound. I know its sounds crazy, but the way he pitches one inning and then the next is crazy.
If Morales keeps progressing on rehab, I wonder if he wouldnt just replace DLR and then they would resend DLR to the bullpen and spot start. Less pressure on him, he might do better more long term like he did in the 2nd half last year.
Who knows
Unfortunately, Morales struggled in a rehab start Friday. Just 3 1/3 innings.
Steve’s of course right–DLR pitched very well through the first 6. His rough 7th came after a long inning and the 9 runs. He did fall asleep a bit–the single to first that preceded Ankiel’s double (and DLR’s 3rd run) actually should have been an out. Helton fielded it but DLR forgot to cover 1st.
I’d like to know the distance of Ian’s home run. that thing was a monster.
According to the announcers, Stewart’s homer was estimated to be 430 feet, the same as the one he hit in Houston.
I was thinking before yesterday’s game, if I was the manager of the Rockies my pregame talk might be as follows: “Guys, today you all found out about Yorvit’s ordeal and it sure has put the game in perspective in comparison to other things in life. Maybe when we get into clutch situations we try to make it harder than it really is. Let’s learn from this and just go out and have fun. Let’s see what we can do and not worry about the outcome so much. Relax. Enjoy the game. Give it your best shot and let’s just see what happens.” Something like that, you get my drift.
So now they go out and pound out two big victories and seem like a new team (at least for a couple of days). Coincidence?
I also have to give kudos to Tracy for pulling DLR in the 7th. Listening on the internet it was like – oh no, here we go again. I think Tracy saw it coming and even with the big lead he was proactive.
There are few players in MLB with the power of Stewart. I think he has a 500 ft. HR in him sometime. This should really cement that the time to trade Atkins is coming soon, although having Helton, Hawpe, and Stewart in the lineup means your best 3 RBI’s are LH. But, they have all shown that they can hit LHP. I think they seem to have given up on Spilly which I think is a mistake. I would play him ahead of Seth Smith and/or try to trade Smith to get rid of all the LH hitters. This is 2 good wins in a row and the pitching matchups look favorable until next Wednesday when the face Gallardo in Milwaukee. Go Rockies!
I meant to say “one of the LH hitters” not all.
I disagree, I think Spilly is more situational and thrives in those situations, he reminds me of Sweeney and that might be his role going fwd for years, to get one start a week and then do well off the bench. Smith is more of an on base machine and has more potential power and hasn’t hit his ceiling yet. But now that they have brought in CarGo, I think Smith will get less starts, more like 2-3 a week now. Will also be a bat off the bench against righties.
Of course if all of the five produce, its a nice problem for Tracy to have to be able to do situational double switches mid game and flip the lineup around at times.
I like Spilborghs, but isn’t his agent Boras…
Get something for him if you can.
I think Tracy’s remarkable decision was not pinch-hitting for DLR with the bases loaded in the 7th with a 1-run lead. DLR was cruising and had only thrown 78-80 pitches, but he is also not a decent hitter even for a pitcher, so it’s a big risk of wasting one or two outs.
When Ankiel doubles the AB after DLR fails to cover 1st, making it 11-4, with DLR jawing back at Ankiel, and his pitch count at 101, you pretty much *have* to pull him at that point.
Covered before: Spilly’s agent being Boras
Spilly will have 3 yrs of service time after 2009 (and will thus be arb-eligible in the off-season) and is 30. There’s not much Boras can do. If Spilly wants to hit the FA market after his age 33 year in search of a big contract, the Rockies will say, “good luck to you and Josh McDaniels.”
It would be unusual for a team to have lefties at 1st, 3rd, and in LF and RF, with the only RH in the meat of the order being Iannetta. So I guess I see their concern there. But a lot of this will shake out according to the trade market, or at least I hope it does. If someone makes a nice offer for Hawpe or Smith, I think they need to listen. If the offer is good enough to offset the risk of an all-lefty lineup, I think it would be hard to turn down.
I’d miss any of those guys, though–they all have their qualities. The value of a “clubhouse presence” is much-disputed, and fans aren’t really in a position to see it anyway, but Spilly looks like a good guy to have around.
Mike, I will say Phillies don’t seem overly concerned about having added Ibanez to Utley and Howard in middle of order. Quality left-handed bats can hit left-handed pitching, or at least should be able to, just like quality right-handed bats can hit right-handed pitching. Also, in addition to Iannetta, don’t forget the expected resurgence from Tulowitzki.
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